Mill Train in Position on Mezzanine

Our Malt Hopper (the table structure in foreground) is now in place with the screw conveyor (the white tube) taking the malt up to the Mill on the mezzanine floor. The BIG BLUE VALVE is the gas main supply.

Upstairs the red Mill crushes the grain and the next bendy white tube conveyor takes it up to the top of the Grist Case with its 1 tonne capacity. When we mash in (mixing the grist with hot water in the mash tun) there is a third screw conveyor to take the grist from the grist case bottom to the Mash Mixer on top of the Mash Tun.
Most of the major construction work is complete in the new brewery but as I've said before, there is still plenty to do - steam boiler, lagging of pipework (all 2.7 kilometres of it!), refrigeration, electrics, motors and pump refurbishment, let alone bringing over the existing fermenters and conditioning tanks from the present brewery....

Our e-shop is now open for business!

Great news all you beer lovers - the Inveralmond Brewery e-shop is now open for business and already taking mail orders without us telling anyone about it! Oh the wonders of the web!

We're still working on the shop site and the brewery web pages are going through a bit of a revamp, but you'll see a nice change over the next few weeks.

The shopping pages are very straightforward, so go and have a good look around. In fact I do believe that there is the perfect Xmas gift for everyone!

Happy shopping, Ken

Ossian sparkling at jewellery exhibition

Ossian was featured to great acclaim at silver jeweller and Friend of Inveralmond Brewery Islay Spalding's Xmas Extravaganza in Dundee this weekend. Along with her really groovy Biomorphs and Kilt Pins, the star of the show was sparkling bright and spreading joy and cheer to all!

Thanks Islay!

Chì Mi 'n Geamhradh - I'll see the Winter

Chì Mi 'n Geamhradh

I See The Winter - a great Gaelic folk tune, haunting and sorrowful about a life's love lost for ever, which was popularised by the rock band Runrig.

So winter is on its way and all the leaves are off the trees - my favourite ash tree behind the new brewery is devoid of its greenery unlike the following picture of the same spot taken in the height of summer.

Unlike for the lovelorn bard, there is hope, for the leaves will grow anew, the days will get longer after the winter solstice and spring will come and we shall brew in the new brewery...but in the meantime we can enjoy the winter with our Xmas beer Santa's Swallie!Hints of cinnamon and nutmeg in a lightly hopped malty ale - yum yum!

Cheers, Ken

The Inveralmond Electric Brewery

A very proud and pleased Fergus stands beside our brand new 400 amp, 3 phase electric power supply. The meter/switching box contains its very own cellphone so that meter readings can be sent by SMS back to the electricity company. A very contemporary electricity meter that fits in very well with our new brewery equipment. And now we can put the lights on in the evening!

Hive of Activity

Plenty of welding, cutting, brazing, dieing, crimping and buffing going on at the new brewery. Scaffolding and ladders, pipes and pipe-bridges, overstruts and understruts, flying buttresses and suspended supports...

Looking over the top of the mash tun and wort copper from above the office area. A whole mess of pipes: cold liquor, hot liquor, steam, hot wort, sparge, CIP, condensate, gas - and all in pretty colours too!

Can't wait to get going, but still a great deal to do yet - grist case and grist conveyor, copper chimney, boiler gas connection, boiler chimney, refrigeration system, heat exchanger, cold store, mash tun rake drive gear etc etc...

Men at Work on Big Fuse Box

At long last after many months the new electricity substation for the new brewery has been installed. The electricity people have been digging up the road and laying new cables and are finishing off the connections.

What a modern substation looks like inside - more of a big switch and fuse box really.

The lads pondering where the really big wirecutters are.

Our yeast makes great bread, pies and buns as well as award-winning beer

Swedish kanelbullar or cardamom and cinnamon whirls, straight out the oven. Perfect with a cup of coffee and a chat with friends - Fika as they say in Sweden.

My weekly loaf of Czech-style bread - 800g wholemeal wheat 200g wholemeal rye and a spoonful of aniseed. Dobrou chut'!

My 50/50 wheat/rye loaf - slow proving (rising) over a day and a night in my cold kitchen - a dense moist loaf and slightly sourdough-ish from the wild yeasts and lactics on the rye flour.

Apple and bramble pie with yeast pastry - lower fat than shortcrust but just as scrumptious.

Two apple and damson pies or pirogs - Russian-style yeast pastry turnover pies. They look a bit darker and shinier from the beaten eggwash glaze.

All of the above go really well with Ossian, although the sweet pastries and buns work well with the richness and maltiness of Lia Fail. Well here's to the joys of yeast - Slàinte!

Ken

Shipment of Inveralmond Beer off to Stockholm

Hej!

We've just sent a shipment of our lovely ale off to Stockholm in Sweden to be on sale at Akkurat in Södermalm. It's an excellent pub/restaurant/music venue in a really lovely part of Stockholm and well worth a visit for its amazing choice of beer. The knäckebröd or local crispbread is fab too!

Hej Då och Skål!

Ken

Ossian in London

Was down in London last weekend to go to the London Scottish Regiment's 150th Messines dinner, held to celebrate the Regiment's tradition, soldiers and fallen. There I was able to sup on the lovely Ossian which as ever was on fine form and it was great to see so many of the Jocks, as we call the serving soldiers, enjoying a pint or three.
The top table with the First World War Memorial behind.

I had a very good evening catching up with chums of old and even managed to catch the last train back to my digs at Richmond with an exciting change of train at Clapham Junction, which seemed to me to have hundreds of platforms - all looking exactly the same....

View from Upstairs

Here's very proud Managing Director Fergus standing on the mezzanine floor above the offices with the new fermenters with their shiny copper refrigeration pipework and general fitting out work in progress behind.

A view of the FV gantry -transportation bubble wrap still on the vessels themselves. The gantry is to be extended to the left over the copper pipes to meet up with mezzanine floor and the ladder is to be replaced by a proper staircase, complete with landing and naughty step for recidivist brewers!

Our valve hoard! Now should the handles point to the left or the right...?
Ill let you know my decision next week.

Cheers,

Ken

Pipework in Progress

At long last the gas folk have laid a lovely yellow gas pipe from the main over the road to our new brewery. The pipe leads into our shiny British Racing Green meter housing and finishes in a blanked-off end. Still waiting on the meter itself, but the tunnel for the gas pipe into the brewery building is to be dug out tomorrow.

Shiny copper pipes for the internal brewhouse water supply and tank refrigeration system which are being installed all around the walls at high level.

The new grist case awaiting some modifications to increase its capacity to 1 tonne of malt grist - basically an extra strip of stainless steel (316 for the technical) 300mm wide welded onto the sides.

I'll keep you posted with any updates in the new brewery, but certainly at the moment it's very exciting.

Cheerio for now, Ken